Self-Care Month – “I don’t have TIME…”

The #1 answer I got back. “I don’t have time.” “Not enough time.” “Not enough time in the day.”
I’ve been dancing around this post for a couple of weeks now and I’m not sure why. I think because it rubs up against what I hear as a trainer/teacher again and again and again ever since I had big hair and taught aerobics, “I just don’t have time to exercise.”

The coach in me wants to respond with the tough line, “No. You don’t make time.”

Uff. That’s not really how I roll now. The yoga instructor in me wants to be more spacious.

Thus the battle. So here we go….

What I want to say to people who say they don’t have time for Self-Care is this, you’re not making space for yourself in your own life. You are allowing other things to take the line ahead of you. And I get it –sometimes life is like that. But it’s when this becomes the norm that things start to go awry. When you continually subjugate your needs again and again and forget that you even have a need…that is when you need to stop and take stock.

Because you’re operating from a negative balance – an empty well. You grabbing table scraps to make it through each day instead of coming from a place of being full (or at least partially full.) You’ve probably forgotten what it even feels like to come from that place.

What does this lead to? Well…something on the other end of the see saw of wellness. Stress. Anxiety. Depression. Overwhelm. Exhaustion. Self-Medicating. Hamster Wheels. Around and around and around and around.

The thing is this – Self-Love is the heart of it. It is the beginning and the end of it. The alpha and omega. Because when you love your beautiful self, you’re more apt to TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. You’re more apt to:

Breathe

Calm

Move

Cook healthy food

Eat healthy food

Keep your center

Quiet

Fresh air

Drink a glass of water

Practice gratitude

Choose positivity

Not drink/eat too much

I can’t take the hard line because I’ve been on the hamster wheel. I get it. You won’t get any judgment from me – but you might get an irrational hug because I want to smooth your feathers. Step off now. And remember that Self-Care can be the simplest of things done in a just a moment of your time. Breathe now. Inhale. Exhale.